Mr. Facing Both Ways

Mark 7:1-8; James 1:17-27

 

       I will make the assumption that all of you washed your hands before coming to church this morning. After all, cleanliness is next to godliness. But how many of you brought a little bottle of sanitizer with you so that you might freshen up before taking communion? I need to confess, I left mine at home. Not only that, since coming into the sanctuary I have handled a bulletin, two hymn books, my music folder, and this sermon before me. I shook hands with three different folks and patted one person on the back. I share all of this because I not only will be participating in communion, I will be the person breaking the bread. What would Miss Manners say? More importantly, what would a good Pharisee say?

       Our text this morning begins rather oddly. The Pharisees notice that the disciples of Jesus failed to wash their hands before eating lunch. Now I know that it always best to wash before one eats but this complaint seems so trivial. Half these guys were fishermen. They had been eating with soiled hands their entire lives. You would think Jesus would have ignored the criticism and continued with the meal. But Jesus wasn’t very good at turning the other ear. He called the Pharisees a bunch of hypocrites claiming they had no idea what it meant to follow the commandments of God. What on earth is going on here?

        As you are well aware, Hebrew Law includes many laws concerning ritual purity. There are exacting regulations on how food is to be prepared. I for one refuse to argue with the results. A couple of weeks ago I devoured a pastrami sandwich in a Kosher restaurant off 44^th Street in downtown Manhattan.   It was the best pastrami on rye I have ever eaten. I assume my hands were clean but I can’t swear to it.  No one behind the counter checked me out before I wrapped them around that glorious piece of heaven. All they seemed to care about was me paying the bill at the end of the feast.  But something different was going on with Jesus and the Pharisees and it had nothing to do with the food. The Keepers of the Law were determined to catch Jesus breaking the Mosaic Codes. Instead of backing down, Jesus lambasts the Pharisees for making a big deal over the trivial while turning a blind eye to what actually mattered.

       Jesus said, “It is not what you take into yourself that makes you unclean. It is what comes out.”

       Please understand that Jesus was speaking philosophically. I don’t want any of you running to your doctor and telling them Jesus said a low salt, low fat diet is just a bunch of nonsense made up by folks who want to make us miserable. What we eat is important. Washing our hands before lunch is imperative. But the point Jesus was making was, “Lip service too often replaces real service.” Or as the writer of James liked to say, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.”

       What frustrated Jesus was he knew the Pharisees were students of the Law of Moses. Jesus preached that the primary reason for the Law was to inspire folks to live a full life loving God and loving their neighbor. But instead of embracing the essence of the Law found in the Book of Exodus, the Pharisees skipped over to the Book of Leviticus.  Anyone here actually read the Book of Leviticus?  The first 15 chapters talk about which animal you can sacrifice in the tabernacle. Most of the folks to whom Jesus preached never owned an animal much less sacrificed one. The next five chapters talk about clean and unclean food but again, most of the folks listening to Jesus ate whatever they were lucky to have on their plate. The Book of Leviticus has little meaning for folks doing their best just to make it through life.  The core of the Law of Moses, i.e. Exodus and Deuteronomy, explains how God desires me get along with that guy down the street. But that can be hard stuff. The Pharisees found it much easier to worry about table settings and hygiene. But then who can blame them. Hasn’t it always been easier to place ritual ahead of principles?

       Risk is hard and what greater risk can there ever be than getting out of our comfort zone. There is a character in the John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress called Mr. Facing Both Ways. Mr. Facing Both Ways weighed every issue, understood its moral implication, then always took the easiest path, especially if it happened to benefit him. After all, what could be more difficult than addressing problems with moral implications? The Pharisees acted like Mr. Facing Both Ways. They knew the laws about caring for the weak, the widows, and the orphans but decided it was easier to worry about which meat was kosher. I guess you could say they washed their hands of anything that might be the least bit important.

       We live in an imperfect world which daily confronts us with opportunity to address moral issues.  This is difficult because some issues can fracture even a holy community. The author of the Book of James understood this dilemma. Yet he courageously warned his folks that you have to do more than just sit quietly and hand out sanitary wipes. Perhaps he remembered the Prophet Jeremiah who wrote, “The Law of God is written upon your heart. You know what is right and what is wrong. Blessed be the one who listens and responds.”

       Many of us went to church yesterday. John McCain could have picked anyone to have spoken at his funeral but he chose four men who had absolutely nothing in common. Henry Kissinger was the architect of the Vietnamese strategy that McCain never understood. Bush and Obama were the two men who kept him out of the White House. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat turned Independent was McCain’s first choice to be his vice-president. But it was more complicated than that. Kissinger was a non-practicing Jew, Lieberman an orthodox Jew, Bush a converted evangelical and Obama attended the United Church of Christ.  Why these four men? Because McCain wanted folks who would do more than eulogize him. He wanted speakers who had agonized over tough decisions, even decisions with which McCain disagreed, and then acted in ways they believed was good for the country they loved.  

       Hearing the word is easy. Manipulating the word to serve our purposes is not all that hard. But doing the word for the sake of the common good is Holy. It is so much easier to wash our hands. But Christ calls us to a higher standard. When you pick up the phone and call a shut-in, you are getting your hands dirty. When you drop by a neighbor and ask them if they need something at the grocery store, you are usually going out of your way. When you stop to talk to a widow or widower who is walking down the road, your voice might be the only one they encounter all day. But maybe McCain’s final request is the hardest of all. “Even when I know I am right, I owe it to myself, and those I love, to listen to a conflicting voice before I act. It has never been about what is good for me.  It has never been about what is easy.” Christ implores us to do the hard work for the good of the orphan, the widow, the outcast and ourselves.  TGBTG.